The Verkhovna Rada's Human Rights Commissioner, Valeria Lutkovska, has promised to check the statements by football fans Serhiy and Dmytro Pavlichenko, who have been convicted of killing a judge of a district court in Kyiv, who claim that they were forced to plead guilty.

"We need to find out whether any pressure was applied to these people, when they were still in the status of suspects," she said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

She said that her office received a relevant application from the convicts on December 6.

As reported, businessman Dmytro Pavlichenko and his son Serhiy were found guilty of killing Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky District Court Judge Serhiy Zubkov last spring. Dmytro Pavlichenko was sentenced to life imprisonment and Serhiy Pavlichenko to thirteen years in prison. The two Pavlichenkos were members of the fan base of FC Dynamo Kyiv. Fans of different football clubs, who disagreed with the verdict, held rallies for their release.